Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T10:04:08.679Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Eighteen Years of Community Psychiatric Service in the Island of Samsø

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Johannes Nielsen
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatric Demography, Aarhus Psychiatric Hospital, DK-8240 Risskov, Denmark
Jørgen Achton Nielsen
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatric Demography, Aarhus Psychiatric Hospital, DK-8240 Risskov, Denmark

Summary

An analysis has been made of patients aged 15 + referred to the community psychiatric service in a Danish rural population during 18 years. The mean referral rate per year was 17·9 per 1,000.

The majority of the patients (79 per cent) were referred to the clinic by the general practitioners, and it is stressed that a close and good co-operation between the psychiatrists and the local physicians is one of the most important factors in establishing a good community psychiatric service.

Only 11 per cent of all referrals were admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The admission frequency for psychoses was only 19 per cent, and it was estimated that it would have been approximately 44 per cent higher, if the service had been of the usual hospital-oriented type. Forty-three per cent of the patients were visited by the psychiatrist in their home at least once and 42 per cent of all 6,000 consultations were home visits.

When evaluating the treatment possibilities it was considered that approximately 50 per cent of all patients referred could be treated by the local physicians after examination by psychiatrists and discussion of the cases with them.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1977 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dupont, A., Videbech, T. & Weeke, A. (1974) A cumulative national psychiatric register: Its structure and application. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 50, 161–73.Google Scholar
Essen-Möller, E. (1956) Individual Traits and Morbidity in a Swedish Rural Population. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Hagnell, O. (1970) Disease expectancy and incidence of mental illness among the aged. In Studies Dedicated to Erik Essen-Möller (ed. Nyman, G. E.). Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica , Suppl 219, 83–9.Google Scholar
Mazer, M. (1976) People in Predicament. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, J. (1963) Home visits by psychiatrists. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 4, 442–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nielsen, J. (1976) The Samsø-project from 1957–1974. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 57, 198222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, J., Juel-Nielsen, N. & Strömgren, E. (1965a) A five-year survey of a psychiatric service in a geographically delimited rural population given easy access to this service. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 6, 139–65.Google Scholar
Nielsen, J., Wilsnack, W. & Strömgren, E. (1965b) Some aspects of community psychiatry. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 19, 8593.Google ScholarPubMed
Sainsbury, P. (1974) Evaluation of community mental health programs. In Handbook of Evaluation Research (eds Guttentag, M. and Struening, E. L.). Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Shepherd, M., Cooper, B., Brown, A. C. & Kalton, G. (1966) Psychiatric Alness in General Practice. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.